It was August 25th, 2005 when I was living in Laurel and the hurricane was approaching. Katrina was a category 5 hurricane but I, along with most of my neighbors, figured the storm would not be as severe in our area. Laurel is about 100 miles from the coast situated in Jones County, Mississippi.
As a child I remember Camile, a beast of a storm and at that time I was growing up in Ellisville. I recall being awakened by sounds of the family mulling around in the den. My relatives from Kenner Louisiana were visiting, running from the storm. It was about 2am and I went into the living room to see what all the commotion was about.
I climbed up the couch and parted the windows of the living room and saw Camile face to face. The beast was right outside my home. The trees across from our house were bent over and swaying in the wind. I remember thinking that was pretty awesome but you could cut the atmosphere inside the house with a knife. Everyone was worried and as a child I was worried too. I didn't really understand what was going on but I knew it had the adults all in a twitter.
My mom put me back to bed and assured me all would be fine in a stressed and subdued tone. I had no idea the world was falling apart around us so I calmly went back to sleep.
Here in the south hurricanes are the norm. We get one every few years and most of the time they are harmless this far inland. The schools shut down and people clean up the mess. But on August 29th that scenario would be very different. Katrina was making landfall.
Still snug in my comfort zone 100 miles inland I was not very concerned about Katrina. I charged the battery of my camcorder, dug some batteries up and pulled the emergency candles out so I would know where they were. I had $10 in my pocket and a quarter tank of gas in the car. Luckily my Goldwing motorcycle was gassed up. After all, it would just be a storm and in a few days all would be well, right?
Wrong!
The video above is about 35 minutes long and is footage I shot during Katrina.
After the storm the motorcycle would be my major mode of transportation. You can get a bike down roads covered with trees better than you can a car. And the bike gave me the means to move around some. Jones County looked like a bomb had hit!
I recall watching a older lady faint waiting in line at a gas station, helped by others who needed the precious crude. I faced an over stressed police officer who had tried to organize the attendance at another gas station but could not handle the flow of humanity trying to get fuel before it was all gone. I rolled on, still with plenty in the bike to get me around. I watched a store owner open his doors and allow people to buy whatever with whatever they had, some had nothing. I filled out more than one IOU ticket to get food. This store owner knew me and I was able to get a few cans of Vienna sausages and some bread.
I heard a month or two ago that someone had shot this store owner in a burglary. It made me sad because if the criminal had known the efforts he made during Katrina to help his neighborhood, I wonder if the crime would have ever happened. In a small way this man had saved many lives by opening his store and emptying it out. Someone repaid him with a bullet less than 6 years later. He is still alive and still the kind store keeper I knew back then.
Katrina changed the lives of many people, not just on the coast and in New Orleans. We hear so many stories about New Orleans and their problems, but Mississippi is often forgotten in the story of the hurricane. Probably because we didn't complain as loudly. After Katrina we did what we always do, pick up and keep going. We quietly endure and build a better place out of the shambles left by a storm. Mississippi is not a state of whiners.
Today, six years later, the coast is thriving once again. You can barely tell we had a storm in Jones County. And new businesses have emerged from the rubble. But the memory of that storm and all the experiences that touched our lives is still tender and still ingrained in our hearts and minds.
Katrina was a beast and a wake up call. It reminded us how fragile we all are and how connected each of us are linked to one another. After a storm it doesn't matter who is rich or poor, black or white, legal or illegal. We all come together as one and rebuild. After the hurricane we all shared what we had, prayed together and looked to the future as one. In time the memory of the storm itself faded, but the community remains solid. And if we should have to go through it again, we will all be here to help one another.
The video above is the footage I shot during the storm. You will relive Katrina as I did. I hope it will serve as a wake up call to anyone deciding to remain when a hurricane is looming. I did and I suffered through the disaster. But I am alive and grateful that I can share my story with you in this blog.
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